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00:00We've seen schools have beef, or coaches not get along with each other, or even a
00:06combo of those where a coach beefed with one school for half a century. But we've
00:11never had one man versus an entire conference. Who could even do such a
00:17thing?
00:21On December 1st, 2008, the University of Tennessee hired themselves a new
00:26football coach. Lane Kiffin, a 33-year-old charismatic cannonball who'd rocked the
00:33coaching scene. At the University of Southern California under Pete Carroll,
00:37Kiffin built a name for himself, becoming co-offensive coordinator of one of the
00:41most explosive offenses college football has ever seen. Note, the Kiffin name did
00:47have major football ties already thanks to his dad Monty, but his forte was defense.
00:51Lane's offenses fueled back-to-back titles, back-to-back Heismans, and he secured the
00:58nation's best recruiting classes. That's what Tennessee wanted. Someone who could
01:03ignite the program, energize the athletes, current and future, and get the volunteers
01:09back in the SEC title conversation. So, slam dunk hire, right? Well, I'm guessing
01:17Tennessee didn't ask Al Davis for a reference. The man who'd made Kiffin the youngest head
01:21coach ever hired in NFL history, and the youngest ever fired. That dramatic exit fueled
01:28many ill feelings about the fit in Knoxville. This arrogant youngster hadn't been a college
01:34head coach before, or any sort of coach in the SEC, and he had zero ties to Tennessee,
01:41or even the South. Meanwhile, Phil Fulmer, the guy Kiffin replaced, had maybe too many ties to
01:48Tennessee, and had brought them the ultimate success. Historically, the SEC was built on
01:55smash-mouth defensive-minded football. Sure, there were great offenses, but the vibe was hard-nosed,
02:02gritty, tougher than what Kiffin knew in the Pac-10.
02:06So, maybe that's why Kiffin started swinging from the jump. He walked into his introductory
02:13press conference and immediately took aim at the biggest target in college football,
02:18the Florida Gators. As Urban Meyer had his team on the verge of winning its second national
02:23championship in three years, Kiffin began setting the foundation for our beef. No one was off limits,
02:30and Florida in particular was about to find a new enemy. First, Kiffin showed off his recruiting
02:35chops as he plucked assistance from nearly every SEC program to round out his staff.
02:41He stole LSU's top guy, Ed Orgeron, who Kiffin had worked with at Southern Cal.
02:46He snagged assistance from South Carolina, Mississippi State, and Alabama, where he landed his prize catch.
02:54Lance Thompson had been Nick Saban's right-hand man since LSU. So, when he bolted for Knoxville,
03:00Alabama fans figured the only logical reason for defection was a messy one.
03:05Coaches changing jobs is part of the business. Nobody would have blinked if Lane had just kept quiet.
03:12Instead, he showboated a bit, bragging about hurting his rivals while boosting Tennessee.
03:18Those recruiters were a red carpet leading to National Signing Day.
03:22First, Kiffin gave credit to his guy for Alabama's top-ranked recruiting class.
03:29He celebrated Thompson by taking a swipe at Saban, the man who had already coached an SEC team to a national championship,
03:35who torched the conference in 2008, and who came an SEC championship away from likely hoisting a second BCS trophy.
03:44That honor went to Meyer and the Gators, as did Kiffin's biggest swing of the day.
03:50In his short time with Tennessee, Kiffin proudly swayed high schoolers away from other programs.
03:56And maybe no prize was as great as Nakeese Richardson.
03:59The wide receiver from Pahokee had originally committed to Florida.
04:03But once Kiffin swung him to Knoxville, Lane wanted the world to know he'd done it.
04:08Even after, in his words, Meyer cheated in trying to keep Richardson.
04:12On stage, microphones on, cameras rolling, hundreds of fans and boosters in the audience,
04:19Kiffin told them that he was about to turn Florida into the NCAA.
04:23He claimed that while Richardson was visiting Tennessee, the recruit's phone kept buzzing with Meyer trying to get a hold of him.
04:30According to Kiffin, contacting a recruit while he was visiting another school was a big no-no.
04:36A cut-and-dry recruiting violation.
04:38But hours later, Florida fired back.
04:41On behalf of Meyer, they demanded an apology from Kiffin for his allegations,
04:45saying he'd been out of line and completely false.
04:49Which, conveniently for them, the NCAA backed up.
04:53Florida committed no violation.
04:56Also, the NCAA took a shot at Kiffin for not knowing the rules.
05:00I suppose that shot was warranted, considering Lane's accusation of a violation was actually a violation itself.
05:08Kiffin apologized, capping off an eventful signing day,
05:12and noted that he meant no offense to any of the people he accused of cheating.
05:17But that bylaw, and similar ones across other conferences, serve as a governor to coaching beef.
05:23It's the expectation that those representing the conference or the NCAA will do so with decorum.
05:29But it can also serve as guardrails for our more innovative combatants to operate within.
05:35Weeks later, Meyer showed how it's done when pressed on Kiffin's comments.
05:40Simple.
05:41No energy wasted.
05:42He allows everyone else to fill in the blank for how he may have found it.
05:46We've ruled out humorous.
05:48Good start.
05:49Everyone reporting on the matter chose a clear side.
05:51Kiffin's brashness flew in the face of expectation, and it wasn't just with fellow coaches that Lane found himself in hot water.
06:00That prized receiver he stole from Florida, Kiffin managed to also insult Richardson's high school,
06:06leading Pahokee's principal to bar Tennessee assistant coaches from attending football games.
06:11Or with a wide receiver he failed to swoon, Kiffin allegedly told Alshon Jeffrey that if Jeffrey went to South Carolina,
06:18he'd be pumping gas the rest of his life.
06:20That was a shot not just at Jeffrey, but at the entire roster, the entire state,
06:26and one of the most powerful men tied to both, Steve Spurrier,
06:30the third SEC legend that Kiffin entwined himself with.
06:34This pair had actually already traded barbs.
06:38In Lane's first week on the job, the Gamecocks head coach questioned whether Kiffin had taken the recruiting test required of new coaches.
06:45Spurrier felt like maybe he'd been reaching out to recruits a little early,
06:48so he just put it out there.
06:50Not an accusation, just a question.
06:53Kiffin jumped to defend his honor.
06:56I mean, I would too if I nearly aced the thing.
06:59Which maybe just means when he did commit violations, Kiffin at least knew he was committing them.
07:04Like his allegations against Meyer committing violations, which was a violation in itself.
07:09Or later that same February when he was cited for additional, but more harmless violations.
07:15We can all agree that fog machines are cool.
07:18So, just to recount, in his first three months, Kiffin insulted recruits, entire states, committed multiple violations,
07:27and antagonized three extremely accomplished head coaches who have all won national championships while coaching in the SEC.
07:34And then, Lane had to go hang out with them in person at the conference's spring meetings.
07:41Naturally, he brought some jokes.
07:44But long before the football would get started, SEC Commissioner Mike Slive had already had enough.
07:49Allegedly, he spoke to all the coaches without singling anyone out by name, but his eyes told a much different story.
07:58Sabin delivered a bless-your-heart-style critique of the young coach finding his way,
08:03demonstrating tremendous restraint out of respect to the bylaws.
08:07Bobby Petrino from Arkansas introduced a much different energy,
08:10clearly having a blast and being the first to encourage mediation via MMA.
08:15The most heated moment came from Kiffin and Spurrier.
08:19Earlier in the day, Lane had made it clear that he expected some sort of apology.
08:25The head ball coach, though, saw no reason for that,
08:28making his point clear in front of the rest of the coaches and reporters there were no accusations,
08:33simply questions as to what Lane did or didn't do.
08:37And that's how you work around bylaw 10-5-1.
08:41By the end of the meetings, it seemed Slive's message had been heard.
08:45Kiffin viewed what he'd done as something required of him.
08:49Not necessarily ideal, but the efforts were made to move the needle of a program stuck in the mud.
08:55Besides, the offseason can leave folks with more time than they know what to do with,
08:59so as the actual football approached, their focus could reset.
09:04However, there would be consequences for the actions already taken.
09:08Ole Miss's head coach, Houston Nutt, painted the clearest picture.
09:11Regardless of what coaches said or how they felt, the players are another story.
09:18They hang on to all this.
09:20And the players at Florida had already circled Tennessee's September visit to the Swamp.
09:25They plastered Florida's facilities with photos of Kiffin and printouts of his quotes.
09:31Even one of the greatest college football players of all time couldn't shy away from it.
09:37Tim Tebow would always have his coaches back.
09:41And in true Kiffin fashion, when he heard about all this, all he saw was free promotion.
09:47But any coach in their right mind would be nervous based on the reports coming from Gainesville.
09:52Allegedly, behind closed doors, Meyer was set on running up the score.
09:57Even pushing for triple digits.
10:01Honestly, it wouldn't have been out of character.
10:04In 2007, when Florida faced off with Georgia, the Bulldogs scored first and their entire bench sprinted to the end zone to celebrate.
10:11A year later, Meyer had not forgotten.
10:14He made sure the Gators never let up as they embarrassed Georgia,
10:18even calling timeouts in the closing minutes to really let it linger.
10:23And no one at Georgia had been calling Meyer a cheater.
10:26A beatdown seemed inevitable.
10:29Florida entered as the top team in the nation.
10:32Tennessee already had one loss.
10:34And the Gators were massive 30-point favorites.
10:37As everyone watched, rooting for either a blowout or upset,
10:41the teams combined for a game that was boring.
10:46Florida led the whole way.
10:48But Tennessee hung around.
10:50And if moral victories exist in college football, for Kiffin, this was it.
10:54After all the apparent bluster and overstepping, his unorthodox approach had achieved his goal.
11:01Steal the attention.
11:02Take the pressure off the players and let them focus on football.
11:06And the result turned the tables a bit.
11:08Despite winning, Meyer made sure folks know that his team was hit by a flu bug,
11:14and then accused Kiffin of not trying to win,
11:17of slowing the game down and just running the ball and the clock.
11:21But given Tennessee's inexperienced QB, a hostile Gators stadium,
11:26and needing to take whatever Florida's defense would give him,
11:29Kiffin made the right call.
11:31He played SEC football.
11:34He also showed that he'd learned all the bylaws,
11:38and wondered why the rules didn't also apply to Meyer following the accusations.
11:42As the season went on, though, Kiffin laid a little lower.
11:46He was still trying to rebuild the program, and the record showed.
11:51They did nearly topple the top-ranked Crimson Tide,
11:54and earned some major kudos from Saban in the process.
11:57For as much as Kiffin seemed to make things about himself,
12:01you had to credit his ability to get his team to show up.
12:04And they especially did so against South Carolina.
12:07This matchup might have been the highlight of the season for Kiffin.
12:11Not only did his team play well,
12:13but it came in a showdown with a coach Kiffin had great admiration for.
12:18Spurrier had put together a blueprint that Kiffin leaned on and made work for him.
12:23In a season with plenty of growing pains,
12:25Kiffin put a foundation in place for Tennessee to build on.
12:29To do so, he publicly feuded with the highest SEC powers,
12:33he challenged the conference's expectations of coaches,
12:36and he fired up a fan base hungry to return to contention.
12:41And it was for those fans that Kiffin saved the final piece of his beef with the conference.
12:46On January 11th, 2010, Pete Carroll announced his departure from Southern Cal.
12:53Within 24 hours, Lane Kiffin was named the Trojans' next coach.
12:58Thirteen months after showing up in Knoxville, he was gone.
13:02Well, he announced he'd be going.
13:05Fans on the Tennessee campus did not make it easy for him to leave.
13:09They hit the streets, tagging their feelings towards Kiffin on any surface available,
13:14burning mattresses, making it so police officers needed to stand by and maintain order.
13:20Kiffin and some of his coaches needed to hole up until 4 a.m. before they could make a break for it.
13:27Had his abrupt exit been the only issue, Tennessee fans might have forgiven him.
13:33Kiffin had no real ties to the school, the state, or the South.
13:37But he didn't leave quietly.
13:39He took coaches, including top recruiter Ed Orgeron,
13:42and on their way to California, they called Tennessee recruits,
13:46urging them to skip class the next day so transferring to USC would be easier.
13:51On top of that, the NCAA had already announced an investigation on recruiting violations,
13:56which ultimately lasted nearly twice as long as Kiffin's tenure in Knoxville.
14:02In the end, that became his Tennessee legacy.
14:06A decade later, fans still had no reason to forgive or forget.
14:11Partially because after five years of maturing, learning, and growing,
14:15Kiffin made his triumphant return to the SEC,
14:18serving as Saban's offensive coordinator.
14:21After one national title, he earned another head coaching gig with Florida Atlantic
14:26before getting a second crack at running a program in the Southeastern Conference.
14:30And boy, just look at how everything can change when given time.
14:36Or, okay, maybe not everything.
14:38Sorry, Tennessee fans.
14:40This beef was a whirlwind.
14:43It lasted barely a calendar year.
14:46It saw Kiffin rile up an entire conference,
14:49got fans so invested that they'd sacrifice their own mattresses in the name of passion,
14:54and in the most chaotic way, it began earning Kiffin respect from some of college football's elite.
15:00Years later, reflecting on everything,
15:03Meyer hadn't forgotten how it began,
15:05but did find a friendship that no one could have seen coming in 2009.
15:10And as for Kiffin,
15:12the spotlight has found him at every stop since Tennessee.
15:14And while his perception has certainly changed,
15:18in his heart, he'll always be the same guy who took on the entire SEC.
15:44Every Monday, we drop something new over there,
15:48like this one that you just finished.
15:50And honestly, if none of that sounds good,
15:53but you're still listening to me for some reason,
15:56well, I don't know.
15:57Here's some other videos on YouTube that I bet you'll enjoy.
16:00We'll see you soon.
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